Obviously it would depend on the brand and model of the drone and it’s particular RTK setup. Any particular models recommended after going through the criteria?
From PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE, is it possible, via Emlid M2 RTK and EMLID multi-band BASE to HOVER the drone as steady as possible without too much drift or deviation in both the horizontal and vertical directions within cm accuracy?
Example being ideal non-windy or very minimal breeze conditions. Approximately 1 foot or 2 feet max above smooth surface clear of dirt and debris… may even need to hover lower 6 inches or so.
At a normal speed, without too much abrupt acceleration or abrupt braking, is it possible to fly to multiple waypoints and hover almost exactly to each of them as accurate as possible? Holding in place like Stop & Go static action and also smooth non-stop path action passing over waypoints start to end.
What is the general deviation of error in the horizontal components… and also the vertical component? I.e. at the best accuracy of the Emlid Rover/Base receivers via RTK LoRa (or other) such as 7mm horz 14mm vert? Or is error much more than that. I.e. 1 to 2 inches or more of deviation while it tries to keep steady hover over point?
Can it return exactly to start point with cm accuracy or is there a large amount of error? I.e. within a few hundred feet area in both directions. Since GNSS, assume it can return within cm accuracy of the start/end point, but keeping steady may be the issue?
normal (no RTK)
Vertical: ±0.1 m (when the visual positioning is working normally); ±0.5 m (when GPS works normally)
Horizontal: ±0.3 m (when the visual positioning is working normally); ±1.5 m (when GPS works normally)
You can see the specs here
I’ve flown mine many times without RTK just for recreational use and returning home I’m within the stated horizontal accuracy and usually+/-6" from the center of my 3’ home pad. Lately I’ve been flying manually from some pretty hairy areas in the middle of woods and you really need to be very attentive on takeoff and landings. I can say I haven’t crashed mine yet in the almost 2 years since I purchased it. I treat it as a flying a very expense theodolite (with care).
With RTK, I’m always dead on center returning home. I’ve had a couple off center landings on the home pad but I can attribute those times to being impatient at the start of the flight by not having a good enough fix.
I’m not sure what kind of GNSS receiver is in the UAV but I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be a Ublox.
Reach is designed to provide centimeter-level accuracy using the RTK method with a standard ground-based workflow. However, factors like wind speed and drone ability may impact the accuracy with this drone workflow, and we have not tested this particular workflow ourselves.
Hopefully, other users will share their experiences to provide additional insights!
